Clicking machine



' Feb. 27, 1940. I, H R Y 2,191,655

CLICKING MACHINE Filed Dec. 13, 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Feb. 27, 1940. .1. F. HARDY I 2,191,655

CLICKING MACHINE Filed Dec. l3, 1938 2 Slieets-Sheet 2 NVE/VTUF was,

Patented Feb. 27, 1940 PATENT OFFICE CLICKING MACHINE John F. Hardy, Beverly, 'Mass assignor to United Shoe Machinery Corporation,

Borough of.

Flemington, N. .i., a corporation of New Jersey Application December 13, 1938, Serial No. 245,434

forth in United States Letters Patent No. 921,503,

granted 'lvlay 11, 1909, upon an application of Arthur Bates.

Clicking machines of the type referred to comprise a cutting block, normally of wood or other fibrous material, for supporting sheet material, such as-leather, a post mounted at one side of the block'and arranged for reciprocation heightwis'e of the frame of themachine, and a presser arm carried by the post and movable transversely across the block into operative relation to a'die positioned upon material for producing a pressure-applying operation to form a blank from the material. Some difficulty has been experienced particularly in connection with new cutting blocks due to the fact that dies are occasionally driven furtherinto the block than 'is necessary, causing them to'stick' and to slow up the operator in removing them. One cause of this is due to the fact that the frame of the machinesprings under the load causing the portion of the frame supporting the block to, be deflected downwardly while at the same time the presser'arm isdeflected upwardly. Since the frame is more rigid near the axis of the post the deflections will increase-as the load is applied at increasing distances outwardly from the axis 'of the post. Thus in order to make sure that the die will cut through the material at any point on the block it is necessary to adjust the initial distance between the striking surface of the pressermember' and the cutting surface of the block so that when the operation takes place at the forward portion of the block, all parts of the edge of thedie will penetrate the work, but this may result in the die, when. positionednear the axis of the post, being forced too far in the block, causing it to stick as above-mentioned.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved clicking machine which wil largely eliminate the difficulties mentioned and will contribute to uniform cutting over different portions of the cutting surface. To this end and as shown, I have provided in a clicking machine of the type referredto, a cutting block which is supported upon a bed portion of the frame of the machine, together with a wedge of resilient material such as rubber arranged between the bed and the cutting block insuch manner that during the pressure applying operation the cutting block will yield to compensate for the deflections of the bed and presser arm of my invention 7 Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic View illustrating the described reference may be had to the with the result that the contacting surface of the arm and the surface of the cutting block are maintained in a substantially parallel relation. This construction is advantageous in that a die will be forced into the cutting block by substantially the same amount along its entire cutting edge regardless of its position upon the cutting block outwardly of the axis of the post. 'By reason of this the machinecanbe adjusted so that the die will be caused to penetrate only slightly into the cutting block and the likelihood of the die sticking is thereby-reduced to a minimum. These and other features of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed specification when taken in connection with'the accompanying drawings and will be pointed out in the claims. I 1

In the drawings, i

Fig. l is a side elevation, partly in section, of a clicking 'machineillustrating one embodiment effect of deflection of the presser arm andbed in'machines as heretofore constructed; and

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic view'illustrating the operation of the present construction.

The clicking machine illustrated in Fig. 1 comprises a C-shaped frame it] the lower portion of which carries a bed or bracket 52 uponwhich is positioned a cutting block 14. At one side of the block there is a post, it? mounted for rotation in the frame and for reciprocation heightwise thereof, and which carries a presser member 18 extending outwardly from the post and movable about the. axis thereof across the bed l2 7 and cutting block it. The presser member it is arranged to applypressure to a die it! positioned 'upon'sheet' material '22 on the cutting blockl l and is arranged to be tripped by a starting lever 23 which initiates operations of clutch control mechanism 24 operating through a shaft 25, a connection 26, and spindle 21, to'cause the post I6 to move thepre'sser arm downwardly against the die. For further details of construction and operation of mechanism thus far aforesaid United States Letters Patent.

The cutting block I4 is preferably composed wood and is of generally rectangular construction having a fiat horizontally disposed cuttingsurface 28 and an under surface 39 which is slightly tapered from the front to the rear of the machine. The block is supported by a wedgeshaped member 32 resting upon the bed l2.

The wedge-shaped member '32 is of yielding material such as rubber or similar material. The angularity of the wedge corresponds to that of the bevel on the under face of the cutting block it, the taper or bevel preferably being about one in thirty-six. If desired, the rubber wedge may be bonded directly or otherwise secured to the wooden part of the cutting block to form a substantially' rectangular composite block.

This construction is such that, when pressure is applied to a die positioned upon the cutting surface 28 of the block, the block will be depressed as the material of the wedge 32 yields thereunder, the amount of the depression depending upon the distance which the die is positioned from the axis of the post. That is, the nearer to the post the die is positioned the more the block will be depressed. This is for the purpose of compensating for the amount of deflection of the bed i2 and the presser member I8. In this connection it will be observed that both the presser member and the bed are less subject to deflection near the axis of the post than outwardly thereof. For this reason it is desirable that the block will be more rigidly supported at the front of the machine b-utwill yield increasingly as the point of application of the load approaches theaxis of the post.

The thickness of the wedge and the stiffness of the material thereof are so proportioned as to provide for adequate compensation for the separation of the bed and arm so that the cutting surface 23 of the block is always maintained substantially parallel to the under or striking surface of the arm l8.

This is illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3. The full lines in Fig. 2 indicate the positions of a cutting block 36, die 36, and presser member 31, in a machine of a type heretofore constructed, at the time the presser member is in its lowermost psition. The dash lines 39 indicate the lowermost position of the presser member when no die is in the machine. Thus it will be noticed that the striking surface 38 of the presser member has been deflected upwardly through an angle a, and the surface 40 of the cutting block, because of the springing of the frame, has been deflected through an angle 1). Because of these deflections of the bed and presser member, the surfaces 39 and M! have assumed positions in which the surfaces are not parallel and the die has been driven below the cutting block surface by a greater distance at the rear end thereof than at the front due to this angularity between surfaces.

In Fig. 3, which illustrates the operation of the present machine, the presser member has been deflected upwardly upon application of the load from its unloaded position indicated by dash lines i8 and has moved into the position indi-. cated by full lines l8 and. the upper surface of the cutting block It has been moved from its normal position indicated by dash lines 28' into position under the yielding of the wedge 32 until its cutting surface has assumed the position indicated by full lines 28 and is substantially parallel to the striking surface of the presser member. In this position it will be seen that the die 20 has been forced below the cutting surface by substantially the same amount along its entire cutting edge. It is to be noted that the wedge 32 has been depressed through an angle 0 which corresponds to an angle d through which the upper surface of the block has been rocked. Fig. 3 illustrates the operation of the machine for only one position of the die but as the die is placed over different portions of the block the angular deflections of the presser member are substantially compensated for by the variation in thickness of the wedge 32 to maintain the under surface of the presser member and the cutting I surface of the blade in approximate parallelism with the result that the die will penetrate the block by. substantially the same depth throughout its entire cutting edge in any position of the vdie upon the block. f

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A clicking machine comprising a frame, a bed carried'by the frame, a presser arm mounted for movement heightwise of the frame and 'laterally over the bed, a cutting block supported by the bed, and a wedge-shaped member composed of yielding material positioned between the bed and block for maintaining thecutting surface of the block substantially in parallel relation to the striking surface of the presser member during pressure applying operations.

2. A clicking machine .comprising a frame, a bed, a post mounted in the frame formovement heightwise thereof, a presser member carried by the post extending outwardly therefrom over the bed, a cutting block supported by the bed, and a wedge-shaped piece of resilient material between the bed and the block'to provide for yielding of the block during the pressure applying operation of the presser member thereby to compensate for relative deflection of the bed and the presser member. I

3. A clicking machine comprising a frame, a bed, a post mounted in the frame, a presser member carried by the post and movable heightwise of the frame and angularly across the bed about the axis of the post, a wedge of resilient material positioned on the bed with the thickest part of the wedge disposed toward the post, and a cutting block carried by the wedge and having a work supporting surface substantiallyparallel to the bedand a beveled under surfaceengaging the wedge. i

4. In a press of the character described, a composite cutting block comprising a' main body portion of fibrous material having a work supporting upper surface and a tapered under surface, and a wedge shaped resilient supporting portion secured to the under surface.

JOHN F. HARDY. 

